Description

James Kirkwood, an eleven-year-old convert from Scotland, struggled across the frozen prairie with his widowed mother and brothers. While his mother attended her crippled son and the handcart, James was responsible for his six-year-old brother, Joseph. As a snowstorm with icy winds strung out the caravan of beleaguered saints, James carried Joseph through rivers of ice, mud, and snow. After ascending the last miles up Rocky Ridge with little Joseph on his back, James arrived late at Rock Creek camp. There, James Kirkwood succumbed to the extreme exposure of the day and breathed his last for the love of his little brother. He was buried in a common grave with thirteen others who perished that night but always remembered as a true brother’s keeper. Little Joseph eventually made it into the Salt Lake Valley and went on to become a beloved Mormon Bishop of a large and grateful Salt Lake ward.